clover

To me the dominant note in Marc Jacobs is gardenia...I think the closest thing to it in the BPAL catalog is The Ecstasy of St. Theresa.

This is the Love Poem I was most looking forward to, and it does not disappoint. Sniffing from the bottle I get pure grapefruit and jasmine. I know there are a lot of jasmine haters out there, but I have to say I don't get it. To me it's just the prettiest floral scent in all of perfumery. And there's a lot of it in The Presence of Love. Jasmine & piquant pink grapefruit. After a while, the citrus fades, and I start to get a whiff of rose. After a while I start to sniff some musk, but it's not the white musk I'm generally familiar with (from say, Fae or Zephyr) - it's more like the musk in scents like 51. This is a *very* traditional floral perfume, perfect for the traditional romantic poem it is supposed to represent. Luckily I'm a fan of traditional floral perfumes, so I like this very much.

Sniffing from the bottle: it's hard for any note to stand up to lavender, and when I sniff this from the bottle, that's pretty much all I smell. On first application, it's pure lavender, as well - though a very wearable lavender, not medicinal at all. Slowly I start to sense a gentle sweetness start to glow through, and I assume it's the balsam of peru. Which, to be honest, I knew was sweet, but I didn't really think was going to be this sweet. Of course, the description says "sweet violet" as well, so although I'm not really getting Violet out of the scent, perhaps that's lending to the sweetness. It's interesting...after half an hour or so when I put my nose to my wrist I still smell strong lavender, but the scent cloud floating around me is almost like purple candy. Paperwhite is not one of my favorite florals, and so I'm very pleased that it doesn't seem to make much of an appearance on me.

I think this is a very adult, smoothing, elegant scent, but not particularly mournful. And now that I'm concluding the review, I'm just noticing that I'm starting to get whiffs of violet. It's an elegant purple, this scent. Maybe not for everyday, but really lovely.

So often I start reviews with "this is not how I was expecting this to smell", but in the case of The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, it smells *exactly* as I was expecting (and hoping for) it to smell like. Sniffing from the bottle the first thing that hits me is green grass - the scent of standing in a field. It must be the clover, it smells exactly like standing in a clover field. I almost feel like my allergies are going to start acting up. I always think of heather as smelling ever-so-slightly-like-curry on me, in a floral way. And I like it, but only in very small doses or it can be overwhelming. This is staying pretty true on me - after a bit I can start to sense a very light rose if I think about it hard enough, but not enough rose for the scent to go soapy. Overwhelmingly it's the scent of nature and spring - green and pastoral with just a hint of floral to balance it out. Just perfect.

I find Midnight on the Midway to be extremely Chinatown-esque.

I agree with i&p that the violet notes in Nocturne and Morgause aren't necessarily that strong. My favorite violets in the gc are Le Serpent Qui Danse (the violet surprisingly blasts the gardenia right out of the picture in my opinion), Queen Gertrude (rich and regal) and Ephemera (wispy and gentle).

I didn't really expect to like this scent, but an imp was sent to me by a very kind forumite and I'm happily surprised that I love it!

I'm not a huge patchouli fan, and I really don't like lemongrass, so I was wary. But when I put this on, I swear that - on me - the citrus is coming off as extremely grapefruity. At first I get huge whiffs of grapefruit with just a little bit of patchouli providing a dark background. But almost immediately the patchouli disappears on me, and the glorious gardenia (one of my favorite florals) sweetens and smooths this scent right out. On me, this smells like a very grapefruity/gardenia blend with just a hint of something herbal. It's clean, but not in a soapy way - in a way that makes me think this is the kind of perfume I want to reach for when I want to freshen up a bit.

A big hit for me! I'm going to be tempted to grab a bottle before the Yules come down.

This scent is sending me on a trip down memory lane - it's the closest thing to the old single note vanilla bean that I've worn in a long time. I'm not sure which components are doing it, but this scent has the same lush, rich, roundness in it's vanilla that the vanilla bean s.n. had - it's not a feeling I get from vanillas in perfumes very often. This scent is true love - lush, golden vanilla with a tiny bit of drying sandalwood when one inhales very deeply. Really good stuff!

Peach is one of the few fruits I can abide in perfumes, and I love it in this scent. The peach in La Vague is not sweet or playful, a la Fae or Imp...but bold, regal and elegant - in the manner of the Marquise de Merteuil, a scent I love and adore. La Vague reminds me a lot of MdM, in fact - except it's slightly more accessible, if that makes sense. If you like Marquise de Mertueil, but it seems too haughty for you, give La Vague a try.

 

Anyway, it's one of Beth's beautifully balanced creations - the florals are not TOO floral, the fruit isn't too sweet, and I think the iris is acting as a sort of light, woody component to ground the whole scent.

 

A truly lovely, classical perfume!

Sniffing from the bottle: Sweet and crisp with a light background of soft flowers. I love asian pears, and I definitely get that sweet green juicy crispness from this scent.

 

Upon application: It does that strange foody/curry thing that certain flowers do on me sometimes. I can never quite figure out what notes it is that do that.

 

After a few minutes: Unfortunately this starts to go a bit funky on me. I'm not sure why, but I'm starting to smell like tropical fruit life savers.

 

Conclusion: This had great potential at first sniff, but sadly my skin chemistry did this one in. Not for me.

I'd really like to try some lavender-based scents, since I fell hard in love with Lush's "French Kiss" bubble bar. I'll be placing my first BPAL order right after Christmas. I think I'll order an imp of Twilight, and I'm trying to decide between a bottle of Yvaine or TKO, since I don't think imps are available for those, and I don't want to get into the swaps yet (too newbish, lol). I have a hard time choosing because it turns out I like a lot of different types of scents. Does anyone have any opinions or suggestions, please?

I would recommend Love and Pain from The Salon. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful lavender scent. I prefer it to both Yvaine & TKO.

I am on the search for the ultimate lilac. Of course, I'm very picky and have never really liked any lilac scent from any company I've tried. I want a lilac scent that smells like lilacs, not like a lilac perfume. *big sigh*

 

I'm also looking for the ultimate lilac. I tried Cordelia yesterday, which was a wonderful lemon-lilac, but now I'm wondering if I can find such a nice, strong, natural lilac somewhere else, maybe in a combination better than lemon.

 

You should try His Station and Four Aces, if you can find some. It's a gorgeous lilac blend - by far my favorite. Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree also has a really lovely lilac note, although it's maybe not quite as prominent as the lilac note in HS&FA. Also Villain (or possibly Whitechapel - I always get those two mixed up) is a great, slightly-masculine lilac. I'm pretty sure it's Villain I'm thinking of.

You should really try Monna Vanna, from the Salon. I think it's the most true-to-life rose in the catalog - above Rose Red even. But it's also got lots of supporting florals, too. When I saw "florist's shop", it was the first scent that came to mind.

Sniffing from the imp I get a fresh, damp greeness - what I'm guessing is the palm. Upon application that scent sticks around for a while, but is gradually replaced by a slithering dark muskiness. I'm not sure what that is, but I really like it. I don't really think it's the leather (which I don't smell at all) - and if it's the tobacco, it's not the kind I'm usually used to. It's very earthy, slightly sweet, a little bit bitter and surprisingly animalistic. I love it.....but would really love it on a man.

 

The wear length is good - I've been wearing it for about eight hours and I can still smell it floating around me.

Sniffing from the bottle: woah, that's sharp.

 

Upon application: Completely different from how it smells in the bottle. It smells exactly, EXACTLY, like dry and barren corn fields. (Trust me, I'm from corn country, I know. How does a Califonia girl like Beth know? I have no idea? ) Actually, when I first applied this I sort of didn't remember what the poem was all about, and I was all "Huh? Dead fields?"...and then I remembered. Really amazing.

 

But the best part is that scent is fleeting, and after a few minutes it settles down into a gorgeous, lightly spicy, warm, traditional perfume. Which is great, because while the scent of barren fields is extremely evocative, who want to smell like that all of the time. The clove is really strong on me, and it's set against a backdrop that is dry and lovely, like leaves rustling in the wind. I will wear this a lot this fall.

 

Conclusion: Besides being beautiful and really wearable, I think this a very smart perfume. Big thumbs up!

This was nothing at all like I was expecting, and for the first time in quite a while I had my heart broken by a scent.

 

Sniffing from the bottle: really light spice.

 

Upon application: It goes through a lightly spicy stage, but turns pretty quickly to a light coconut scent. And coconut, on me, smells exactly like plastic. There's not a hint of musk, or anything feral or animalistic. Weird. I'm even wondering if there's something strange with my bottle.

 

Conclusion: I was really looking forward to this, even though lunar scents don't generally call my name, but I would never wear it.

Sniffing from the bottle the first thing I notice is the scent of dirt. This makes me happy, because I was sort of afraid I would get aquatics. I was a little bit afraid of the verb "sprayed" in the description. But yay! There's nothing even remotely aquatic in Singing Moon - to my nose anyway.

 

The scent of dirt lingers when I put it on my skin, but not in a way I am used to. It's incredibly soft (dirt is usually the only thing I can smell when it's a component in a perfume), and takes a back seat to all of the other notes in the blend. Which, to be honest, I'm going to have trouble describing. Not quite floral, not quite fruity. Maybe like wildflowers? I'll say this - it's BEAUTIFUL. Gorgeous. I love it. I'm actually considering scribbling Clover + Singing Moon = True Love Forever with a big heart around it on my forearm where I slathered the perfume. It's that good.

The Emathides is one of those scents that smells completely different in the bottle than it does on my skin. Sniffing from the bottle I get a light, herbal fruitiness. I can definitely smell the lavender, and maybe a bit of the black currant - something fruity, anyway.

 

Once it hits my skin, though - deep, dark, caramel-like amber. The deepest, richest, most syrupy amber you can imagine. Did I say deep? It's deep. And dark.

 

After a while I get traces of some of the from-the-bottle herbiness floating around as well. I get a little bit of musk, and a little bit of what I think might be the wood violet (although I'm not positive).

 

On me it turns really sweet after a while. It's all smooth edges - nothing floral or bitter or herbal at all. Yep - rich and sweet and smooth. Good stuff.

I think something in the vein of Leanan Sidhe or Zephyr - clean, white, sophisticated but a little bit innocent.

Join us, won't you?

Are you making sure to roll them between your palms when you get them to re-mix them?

Not a scent name, per se...but how do y'all pronounce galangal? I've heard gall-en-gall & gal-en-gail. The second always sounds odd to me. I always want to say ga-LONG-ull, but I know that's not right. Is it?

This scent is *just* like the painting - piercing white & yellow. It virtually screams white & yellow.

 

It settles down after a while, but it's still strongly aquatic and floral.

 

Not really my thing, I'm afraid.

This one catches me off guard, too. I didn't think I was going to like it - I'm never a fan of ozone or metallics. But, I don't get even a hint of either of those here. This scent is mostly leather on me, and I love the way leather smells. It's a little bit dusty - for some reason I'm reminded of really old books - but mostly sweet leather. Although, to be honest, it could smell like mugwort & colophony & ajowan, and I'd never know it.

 

It's very good stuff, but since it's so predominantly leather on me, I'm not sure I need it when I already have a handful of leathery faves.

On first application I'm hit with a blast (a gentle blast, but a blast nonetheless) of citrus. And a bunch of garden-y flowers. It's pretty for a little while, but it starts to go slightly bitter on my skin. A little bit sharp and spiky. I'm not a huge fan of citrus in my perfumes, admittedly.

 

After a while things start to soften up. It's pretty....and then it goes watery and disappears.

 

My skin doesn't like this one as much as a lot of the other new Salons.